Shirer's Literacy Corner

Differentiated Instruction

2011-03-04T09:09:00.000-08:00

What is differentiated instruction? On a simple level, it means starting where kids are rather than adopting a one size fits all approach to teaching that seems to assume that all learners of a given age are essentially alike. It involves providing students with different avenues to acquiring content; to processing, constructing, or making sense of concepts; and to developing materials so that all students within the classroom can learn, regardless of differences in ability. This type of instruction requires teachers to modify their teaching instead of expecting the children to modify themselves to fit the curriculum.

Differentiation is not teaching at a slow pace so that everyone can keep up, allowing pupils and groups work through tasks at their own pace, or expecting some students to do better than others. It does not mean that you give more of the same work to your advanced students just to keep them busy.

Teach each child from where they are. Provide different activities/levels of activities/support as needed to teach, remediate, or stretch your students. Teach the same concept...just vary the way that you present it.

Thanksgiving Reads

2010-11-19T11:02:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving is a great time to catch up on some good reads! Here are some age appropriate suggestions:

K - 1 A Turkey for Thanksgiving by Eve Bunting
The Night Before Thanksgiving by Natasha Wing
10 Apples Up on Top by Dr. Suess

1 - 3 Thanksgiving Turkey Trouble (Ready Freddy series) by Abby Klein
Junie B. Jones and the Yucky Blucky Fruitcake by Barbara Park

4 - 5 Little House on the Prairie Books by Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Ralph Mouse Collection by Beverly Cleary

Check out this site for other great reads for Fall!

http://www.apples4theteacher.com/holidays/thanksgiving/kids-books/

Hope you enjoy this time with your families! Happy eating and HAPPY READING!!

Explicit Vocabulary Instruction

2010-09-22T08:23:00.000-07:00

Greetings! Hope the new school year has gotten off with a great beginning for you! We are crazy busy here at school with the new challenges the new school year brings. We are really full (lots of kids) and are creatively using our space to still teach all children on their level in reading! YAY for AMES faculty and staff!!!
Students do gain much of their word knowledge through being well read. However, explicit instruction of certain words can contribute greatly to their vocabulary development. This instruction should involve a lot of techniques that actively involve students in word learning, use discussion to teach the meanings of new words, use contextual information...how a word functions in various contexts and of course, and use the definition to give information about the word.
According to Stahl and Fairbanks (Review of Educational Research 56, 72 - 110 (1986) ), there are several instructional activities that provide students with definitional information. These include, but are not limited to:

Teach synonyms.
Teach antonyms.
Rewrite definitions.
Provide example sentences.
Provide non-examples.
Discuss the difference between the new word and related words.

Welcome Back!

2010-08-09T13:05:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone had a great summer! It was a busy one for the Shirer's household...we visited several historical sites and enjoyed some great food!!! I also spent a lot of time reading this summer and will share more about some of my favorites at a later time.

Arnold will begin testing with DIBELS on Wednesday, August 11th. We hope to finish testing by the following Monday afternoon! These assessments will help us place all our children in their appropriate reading group.

That's all for now!
Mrs. Shirer

Summer Reading

2010-05-21T07:40:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that another year is over! We have seen lots of growth in our students this year in reading. Please stress the importance of summer reading with your students. I am planning on sending a grade appropriate suggested summer reading list home with each of your students.

Have a great, adventure-filled but restful summer! Read at least one good book for pleasure!! I have my Nicholas Sparks books picked out for pleasure and I am reading Steven Layne's Igniting a Passion for Reading to help fill my toolbox with more strategies for teaching reading.

DIBELS REPORTS

2010-03-31T10:35:00.000-07:00

THEY ARE HERE!!! Finally...a letter is ready to send home with the DIBELS reports in order to explain them to our Arnold families. These letters will go home approximately every 4 1/2 weeks with our students who are receiving extra help in reading. This is to keep our families up to date with their student's progress.

We are fast approaching the end of the school year. Here are the fluency goals for grades 1 - 5:
1st grade - 40 wpm (words per minute)
2nd grade- 90 wpm
3rd grade- 110 wpm
4th grade-118 wpm
5th grade-124 wpm

Fluency is rate of reading as well as accuracy. It is proven through research that having good fluency plays a big factor in reading comprehension. This is just one of the reasons we spend time working on fluency.

Check back soon for end of year information for groups.
Happy Easter!

Strategies for Reading at Home

2010-02-08T10:43:00.000-08:00

To Our Arnold Family Members:

You are your child's first and most important teacher. It is important that you read to and with your child every day. However, there's more to reading together than just saying the words. Try asking them questions like these when you read together:

Talk about the story...
What does the auther say about....
Why was it important that....
Do you think this could really happen? Why or why not?

Talk about words and sounds....
Name some rhyming words for....
Let's count out the syllables in....
How many words on this page begin with the letter....
What are some words that mean the same as....

Talk about new words...
What is....
What's another word for....
What do we call.....

Remember your child has a password for Skatekids Online and can access it anywhere they can get on the internet. It is a great tool for working on reading skills and something you can enjoy together.

Check back in a couple of weeks for an update on DIBLES information! Have a great week!
Mrs. Shirer

New Groups Coming in January!!!

2009-12-02T07:32:00.001-08:00

I can't believe it's time for assessing again...DIBELS and running records! We will utilize the information we gather to form our new groups. Some will be happy to change and others will NOT be so happy...LOL...remember, I always try to share the wealth!

I hope to have new groups formed before Christmas break in order for there to be time to plan. Just wanted to review the lesson plan we use for small group instruction as we are coming to the end of the semester...

Remember to do an easy read (for higher groups) and a reread for lower level groups. This is important for fluency practice.

Word study is an important part of the lesson for those up through evolving word study particularly. This allows us to teach patterns for spelling as well as for reading.

Have children read aloud as much as possible. Round robin reading should not be used. Instead, use whisper read with a lead reader, partner read, choral read....the more practice they get reading the more proficient they will become.

Comprehension is key! Ask thinking questions, have students ask questions of each other...before, during and after the reading. Write these questions down before the lesson is taught!

PLAN, PLAN AND PLAN!!!! Let me know if you have any questions!! Have a great day!

Your Great Ideas

2009-11-18T06:52:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving!

I can't believe it is almost Thanksgiving break!! WOW! Hang in there!! I wanted to share with you some ideas that your co-workers had regarding the Strategies that Work book.

Kindergarten shared these strategies:
Reading with a question in mind
Connecting text to self: relating the characters to ourselves
On pg 111 The more we learn, the more we wonder

1st grade utilized these strategies:
On page 137 Creating mental images
I see
I hear
I can feel....
On page 127 questioning from informational text
On page 241 leveled reading with puppets

2nd grade had these great ideas:
On page 46 using think alouds/guided instruction with connecting ideas and asking questions.
On page 94 making connections between small poems and our lives utilizing during centers possibly.
On page 100 using the fact sheet for nonfiction literature such as writing about snakes, landforms, etc.

What great ideas you all had. I will send out a complete list soon! Have a great day and enjoy your Thanksgiving break!

Taking a Break from Strategies Book

2009-10-28T06:33:00.000-07:00

Greetings!

Just a quick but much belated update on my blog!! We are on our second round of reading groups and much progress has been made. It is, in some cases, slow but steady!!

I would like to see some more hands on activity in the reading block. I just have a few suggestions for projects that will tend to elicit high level performances from your students:

plan a journey
write an opinion article
make a travel brochure
draw a graph
make a map
teach a lesson
create a model

These can be done as a follow up activity after a read aloud or even the basal story. There are more ideas on the following website: http://www.adifferentplace.org

More from the Strategies book next week!!!
Be blessed!

Visualizing

2009-09-22T11:34:00.000-07:00

What is visualization and just why should I teach this strategy anyway??? Visualizing is creating mental pictures in your mind as you read a story. These pictures unfold and change as you read. It personalizes reading and often prevents us from abandoning a book too soon!

Proficient readers use images to draw conclusions, to create distinct and unique interpretations of the text, to recall details significant to the text, and to recall a text after it has been read. Images from reading frequently become part of the reader's writing. Images from a reader's
personal experience frequently become part of their comprehension.

Many of our students don't come equipped with this skill so it is up to us to teach them to "see" as they read or listen to a story. There are several strategy lessons in chapter nine of the Strategies That Work book. One of my favorite ways is to read aloud to the class. Model drawing what you "see" in your mind. Give them a piece of paper and have them draw what they "see" in their mind as you are reading. Give them time to adjust their pictures as necessary.

What are some examples of lessons you would use to teach this skill?

Until next time....

Making Connections

2009-09-08T07:01:00.000-07:00

Welcome back to school! Hope everyone had a wonderful Labor Day weekend. Today I am going to "talk" about making connections. We can connect (and teach our kids to connect) to books in three ways:

Text to Text
Text to Self
Text to World

Text to Self:
Text-to-self connections are connections that readers make between the text and their own life experiences. Example: “This story reminds me of a visit to my grandmother’s house.”

Text to Text:
Text-to-text connections are connections that readers make to other things they have read, such as other books by the same author, or other stories related by genre or topic. Example: “This character has a similar problem to one that I read about in a story last month.”

Text to World:
Text-to-world connections are broader connections that readers make while reading. A text might remind students of something they learned through movies, television, newspapers, or magazines. Example: “I saw a movie that showed some of the ideas in this story.”

You may print out posters for these connection to post in your classroom. This is also a link to lesson plans for teaching these connections. Remember to teach your children that TEXT is not just a way to communicate with your phone. Teach them that text is words on a page.

http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=228

Let me know what you think! Have a great week!!

Questioning

2009-08-27T11:31:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends!

Just wanted to share with you some thoughts on teaching comprehension in the classroom. Here are six comprehension strategies for you:

1.Monitor and Clarify
2.Making Connections
3.Visualize
4.Ask Questions
5.Infer and Predict
6.Summarizen in the classroom.

I will talk about 1 or 2 of these each week for the next several weeks. Please make comments or leave questions or concerns if you have any.

First...Monitor and Clarify:

Readers monitor their reading by being aware of when meaning is breaking down. When this occurs, they use fix-up strategies to clarify meaning.
•Reread words, sentences, or parts of the text, and then go on.
•Stop and ask themselves questions to clarify.
•Use text features (e.g./ photographs, artwork, charts, labels).
•Read on and then go back to clarify meaning and make sense.
•Ask for help (from the teacher, from another student)

Next week we will look at Making Connections and Visualizing.
Have a great week!

Julie

Assessments

2009-08-18T05:37:00.000-07:00

Good Morning! We began our DIBELS assessments yesterday in 1st grade. This stands for Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills. Each assessment takes approximately 1 minute and gives us a quick snapshot of whether or not your child will need some intervention for reading. Every child not making a specific score on the assessment will be placed in an appropriately leveled intervention group for 30 minutes each day. We will do a quick check every week to make sure your child is making adequate progress and will make any changes necessary to ensure academic success. Please feel free to call or come by the school to make an appointment with me to see your child's scores and discuss any reading group placement. I hope you have a great day!

Back To School!

2009-08-05T06:42:00.000-07:00

Welcome Back to a new school year! I hope you have been reading over the summer. My favorite summer read was Split Second by David Baldacci. What a thrilling read!! What was your favorite book for the summer? What was it about? Tell me all about it!